'The Bride'

My six-weekly visit to the hairdresser’s this morning. I’ve been going there for a year now, and enjoy chatting with my stylist Liz. She’s booked in for spinal surgery in a month’s time, having been suffering with sciatica for a couple of years. It’s caused by a bulging disc, a cyst and thickening of the bone from osteoarthritis. Although it has eased this week, my advice (having had spinal surgery myself years ago) was to go ahead with the operation. It’s possible to improve the bulging disc with physiotherapy, and the cyst might disperse by itself, but the thickening bone situation is only going to get worse. The surgeon will scrape some of the bone away, removing the pressure on the sciatic nerve, so Liz should feel relief from what I know is the most excruciating, unbearable pain and numbness down the leg. If you haven’t experienced it, you are very fortunate indeed.

I noticed this very pretty Exochorda x Macrantha blossom, known appropriately as 'The Bride', on my walk home. I do so love the spring.